I just have one thing to say today...

      GO GEORGIA!!!!!!!

Labor Day Weekend in Ft. Walton Beach

We had a fun getaway to the beach with our good friends, our kids' ages match up perfectly & it made for a great weekend. I'll let the pics speak for themselves!

A rooster, boat ride and sleepovers

Ok, so all of these things didn't really coincide, but I'll start with the rooster. Prince Charles' job is to watch over his 9 ladies and he thinks he's pretty tough. Except at night when I try to pick him up & he runs behind the hens and hides. He's one of the 3 chickens we raised since egg-hood so it's been a lot of fun to see him change from a tiny just-born fluff ball to a huge 6 lb. rooster. So anyway, as much as he might not be thrilled by it, we try to hold him every few days to keep him semi-tame.

So I think I mentioned that we sold our boat? Well, our friends asked us to go to Horn Island with them & we jumped at the chance. Our kids agreed when we made it clear that we were going in their boat, not ours! (At this point the people who bought our boat hadn't picked it up yet.) We've had some not-so-relaxing experiences on ours, needless to say. Anyway, our kids match up perfectly in ages & interests & in about 5 minutes, they had all conspired to build a fort, AKA junk pile, near our lawn chairs. It was a beautiful day and we were all grateful for a good experience in a boat with great company.

I'm including this because I want to remember how much the kids enjoy sleepovers! They'll go through stages where they want to sleep in the same bed for a week or two, and I love going to check on them right before I go to sleep and seeing them snuggled up together. 

Rod's not-so-great birthday & the kids' crafts

We celebrated Rod's birthday (his 30th, of course) in August. Right before we had some friends over the night before, he slipped on one of the kids' scooters and landed on his arm/ankle (I did refrain from making too many "you're officially old" jokes at that time). He went to the ER the next day & found out he had a hairline fracture in his arm, so maybe it wasn't the most fun birthday but we still celebrated with some good food & I made him a carrot cake - his favorite.

The kids have gotten caught up in the duct tape craze & have been making all kinds of purses, wallets & various other creations with it. I'm still getting used to the fact that duct tape isn't plain old boring gray anymore! 

Love this pic of Ben hanging out by the pool with his boat in the water. It's cool to me that he still takes joy in the same things he did as a toddler! I hope he never loses the ability to find happiness in simple things.

Lunch with Sophie & our last boat ride for a little while

Recently I went by Sophie's school to have lunch with her. Can't you see how thrilled she and her friend were to see me? 

Just kidding - she's actually really happy when I go see her. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to go have lunch with Ben though, not by the school but by him. He's definitely at the age where I'm embarrass him about once a day. 

We recently sold our boat - hallelujah! - but before we did, we made sure to go on a few boat rides. We went fishing near Deer Island, which is right across the bay. The next time we just went out for a ride & then dinner at the Hook Up, one of our favorite places. We'll miss having a boat but not the huge repair bills! Of course the people we sold it to will no doubt have the best boat ever & it'll never spend a day in the shop. Oh well, we definitely had some good times on it!

First Day - cont.

How could I forget to mention some of the best parts of the first day?? Ok, the kids cracked me up in the morning. They were sooo organized, in spite of (or because of? whatever!) their mama. They both made notes to put throughout the house at various stations reminding themselves to "go, go, go!" And in the afternoon, Ben was peeking out the curtains waiting for Sophie to come home. He walked out and started peppering her with all of these questions about how her day went. They really missed each other!

First Day of School 2013

School started on August 6th this year. I think we were all ready! The kids were a tiny bit nervous, but mostly excited. I got to walk Ben to his class and any nerves seemed to disappear when he saw a friend sitting outside his classroom. I felt good leaving him and I think he was ready for me to go! Another neat perk this year is having a family friend, Cynthia, just down the hall with her 5th grade class this year.